Tempted by Darkness
by koneko-chaan
Summary: AU It's Yuffie's last summer before she's to be married off. Tifa & Aerith decide to bring her to Nibelheim for the summer, but she's being attracted to a certain mansion and doesn't know why. Yuffentine!


AN: This is my first Yuffentine fanfic~ I don't know where the idea came from, but I was just sitting there and it popped into my head. It's set in an Alternate Universe, so a lot of things that are canon in the game won't apply. Don't get mad at me~

Also! For those of you who were following my YuffiexReno fanfiction 'Hello Again?' I apologize! I'm currently working on it, but I've lost some of the spark for it, so don't hold your breath.

Disclaimer: All characters, settings and other things are copyright to their owners. But I'm sure most of you already know who owns what…

"C'mon Yuffie! Cheer up! We're trying here!"

The Wutai princess huffed out in annoyance. "Does it really matter? You know just as well as I do what Godo has planned for me."

"But we don't know for sure, maybe he just wants to throw you a surprise birthday party!" Aerith said.

"Oh yeah, and he needed me to be away all summer? Stop trying to make it not true. Godo is setting up a marriage without my consent."

"All the more reason to live up right now!" Tifa shouted, pumping her fist into the air. "Now c'mon, my dad is out of town right now, so we have the house all to ourselves."

Yuffie felt her ears perk up and all the doubt she had washed away. "Really? Well, I might as well do something fun and stupid for my last summer as a carefree princess."

"That's the spirit! Just don't do anything too stupid. Godo might have us arrested if you come back without your virginity," Aerith said.

"What that old man doesn't know won't hurt him," Yuffie said tapping her finger on her lips.

The trio laughed before continuing in silence towards Tifa's house. It was Yuffie's first time visiting Nibelheim and so far she liked it. The small town had a medieval feel to it, with its cream coloured houses, big well in the middle of town, small picket fences separating each lot from each other, and even the old mansion that sat far behind the livelihood of the town. The look of it made Yuffie shudder, but perhaps it was just the fact that the mountains behind it cast an eerie shadow.

Yuffie pulled on Tifa's sleeve. "What's that building?"

Tifa glanced back at the mansion. "It used to be used by ShinRa workers, but I heard somebody died there and now nobody stays there." Tifa leaned in close to Yuffies ear. "Wanna hear a secret?" she whispered.

Yuffie nodded. "Always."

"I think it's haunted…" Tifa's voice low and slow.

Aerith rolled her eyes and sighed. "You don't honestly still believe that do you?"

Tifa shrugged. "Why not? Nobody ever stays there, somebody _did _die there and sometimes at night you can hear a man whimpering and crying over his lost love."

Aerith patted Tifa on the shoulder. "Whatever you say Teef."

"Aerith!"

Yuffie turned to find a certain spikey blond haired boy running towards them. The infamous Cloud that both Aerith and Tifa spent most of their time talking about, or bickering.

"Cloud!" Aerith ran towards him and threw herself into his arms. They embraced each other more a moment before falling into a deep kiss.

Yuffie pretended to gag. Romance was not her thing, especially in public. Being all gushy-gushy with somebody made her seriously sick. Relationships only complicated things. Especially marriage, it just slaps you in the face and says "Have fun not having any more fun! See this guy right here? He's gonna be the only action you get. Sucks to be you!"

Yuffie glanced at Tifa, who had a look between sadness, anger and love. Poor Tifa, Yuffie knew that she had liked Cloud. There had been far too many childhood stories for her to only like him as a friend.

Yuffie pushed herself between the lovebirds. "Alright, break it up! Nice to meet you Cloud, but sadly for you this is a girl's summer, so you're just going to have to take the backseat for now."

Cloud looked stunned for a moment. He began to scratch the back of his neck. "Uh, alright? Nice to meet you too."

Aerith clutched onto Cloud's hand and smiled at him.

Tifa mouthed a 'thank you' to Yuffie. She replied with a nod.

"So where is your house?" Yuffie asked.

Tifa stopped in front of a row of houses. She pointed to the largest one, easily the biggest house in the town, other than the mansion of course. "The big one."

Yuffie cranked her neck to stare at the house. "Jeez girl, are you the richest person in town or what?"

Tifa shrugged. "Dunno. I guess."

"I wouldn't doubt it. You always did have the most stuff when we were little." Cloud said.

"Did I? I never noticed."

"Yeah, you did."

"Oh."

It went silent after that. Everybody stared off into different directions, trying to avoid eye contact.

"So… Why don't we get settled in?" Yuffie suggested.

"Alright." Tifa said opening the front door.

When she opened it, they were greeted by a cold gust of wind. Yuffie felt chills run through her body, but it soon disappeared, thanks to the hot summer sun.

Summers in Wutai had always been blistering hot. It was part of the reason why Yuffie was almost always in shorts and tank tops. She had received a lot of criticism from her people. They didn't believe that a princess should be showing that much skin, like they were still living in the dark ages. Their precious 'White Rose of Wutai' shouldn't do anything that could upset the people, or potential future kings. Like that would ever happen though. When Yuffie is ruling, she will not be letting anybody stand above her.

"Whoops. Guess I haven't been home in a while." Tifa nervously laughed.

It was true. For the past few weeks both Tifa and Aerith had been spending their time in Wutai with Yuffie. The soon-to-be queen had been down in the dumps and needed somebody to comfort her. Tifa and Aerith, being her best friends, stepped up to the plate, left behind their homes and went to stay with Yuffie. Though, she suspected that the whole living in a palace with servants and never having to do any work helped them make their snap decision.

They were more fit for that type of lifestyle than Yuffie ever was. They enjoyed having people always waiting on them, always following them around. Yuffie didn't. She preferred to live on her own, in a small house in the commoner's area of Wutai. Few people knew that was where she would go when she couldn't stay at the palace any longer. The constant swarm of cats comforted her. When she wasn't there, she had a little girl take care of them; she had sworn to secrecy that she wouldn't tell anybody who lived there.

"Bedroom is upstairs first door on the left." Tifa pointed towards the stairs.

"Kay," Yuffie said, slinging her bag on her shoulder and heading up the stairs. They creaked under her step. The house was quiet. Far too quiet for Yuffie's liking. That was just what it's like when you live completely on your own. Tifa's parents had both died. Her mother when she was a child and her father when Tifa was only 16. Yuffie could still remember the funeral as if it were yesterday. The funeral had been held outside the town, in a small meadow that Tifa's mother had taken her when she was a small child. The trio had all cried, Yuffie mostly cried for her friend's loss, as she had never met the woman, but it was sad nonetheless.

Yuffie entered the room and smiled. It was a simple room, with a dresser, desk, vanity, bed and piano. Tifa was quite skilled at playing piano. Yuffie always found it pleasurable to sit and listen to Tifa play the piano. Yuffie thought it must be nice to be multi-talented.

Yuffie was only good at being a ninja, and picking fights with people if that counted. Tifa was good at playing piano, martial arts and bartending. Aerith was good at selling things, first aid; she even sometimes did a few magic tricks.

The ninja sat on the bed and sighed. Two months. Two months until she's to return to Wutai and have her 'big birthday surprise'. Sure, her birthday wasn't until November, but her father seemed to think that it's alright for an 18 year old girl to be able to marry a complete stranger. Yuffie shook her head. _No! Stop thinking like this! It'll work out; you'll find a way to keep the throne and not have to marry a complete stranger! _She had thought of just running away and starting a new life, but then Wutai would be without an heir and who knows who would take it after Godo kicks the bucket. It would be somebody horrible. Yuffie couldn't leave her home country to be more ruined than it already was.

It was all ShinRa's fault. ShinRa started a war and almost destroyed the country. Now, instead of standing as an independent nation, Wutai is a part of ShinRa's vision of an empire. Luckily, there hadn't been a reactor built there…yet.

Yuffie walked to the top of the stairs. "Tifa, Aerith, Chocobo head! You guys coming up or what?"

"Be there in a second!" Aerith called back, her voice somewhat strained.

_Don't tell me they're already arguing…_ Yuffie thought. She silently tiptoed down the stairs until she stood just out of view.

"…Doesn't matter what you think…It isn't up to you," Aerith whispered.

"I don't believe it's up to you either," Tifa snapped back.

"Guys, just stop it! We don't need to do this now. Aren't you guys supposed to be focusing on keeping Yuffie happy for the summer? How is arguing going to help anyone?" Cloud added.

Good Cloud. Keep them calm. While Aerith and Tifa were extremely close, even to the point that at times Yuffie felt like a third wheel, they constantly argued over Cloud.

"I guess you're right. We can deal with this later. No fighting till all this is over, deal?" Aerith said.

"Deal," Tifa said.

"Then let's get this summer started!" Aerith said fist pumping the air.

Cloud silently laughed. "Good, you can stop eavesdropping now Yuffie."

"How did you know I was listening?"

"I saw you tiptoe down the stairs," he said as-matter-of-factly.

Yuffie sighed. "Guess I'm getting a little rusty." She swung her arm around in a circle.

"So what did you guys have planned?" Cloud asked.

The girls looked at each other. They hadn't actually had anything planned. They just flew over to Nibelheim, Yuffie wasn't too pleased with that part, and went for it. Maybe they should have gone to Costa De Sol. At least there would have been hot guys without shirts walking around on the beach. That was always a bonus.

"You didn't plan anything did you?"

They shook their heads simultaneously.

"Guess we didn't think that far," Yuffie said.

"Maybe we should have." Tifa rubbed her temple. "It's actually really boring here, now that I remember."

Cloud shook his head. "Not entirely. You guys actually showed up at the perfect time."

"Why?" Yuffie asked.

Tifa snapped her fingers. "Oh yeah! There's going to be a festival next week isn't there?"

Cloud nodded. "Yep. The town is going to be setting up for in the next few days. I'm on the heavy lifting committee."

Yuffie snorted. "You? Heavy lifting? Ha!"

"You'd be surprised how strong I am."

"I bet."

"Okay you two, enough with the bantering," Aerith piped in, "is there anything we can help out with?"

Cloud shook his head. "Not for a day or two."

Yuffie sat on the stairs in a mope. "Then what can we do till then?"

"Sit around and complain about how much our lives suck?" Tifa suggested.

Yuffie and Aerith looked at her. "Nah," they said.

The trio erupted into a little fit of giggles, leaving Cloud looking at them with confusion.

"Girls," he muttered under his breath.

Later that night, after Cloud had gone home and Tifa and Aerith had gone to sleep, Yuffie slipped outside. She wanted to go and get a closer look at the mansion. There was something about it that drew her to it. True, she'd been an avid horror movie fan, but the house seemed to hide more than that. What it was hiding, she didn't know.

She walked through the town, careful to not wake any of the residents. Each house looked almost identical to the one beside it. The only real differences were the sizes and amount of windows.

Yuffie felt her heartbeat increase as the mansion came into view. Its appearance was greatly different at night. The shadows from the day seemed to have grown longer, making the house seem like it was reaching out for Yuffie. As if it had some kind of invisible pull on her.

As she trudged forward, her legs started to wobble and she could almost feel her heart beating in her stomach. She swallowed hard and stood at the gate. Her shaking hand reached out to the large gate and grabbed onto it. Taking a deep breath, she slowly pushed the metal frame forward. A loud creak sounded at the movement. Yuffie snapped around to see if anybody was around to hear that, or if they had somehow managed to hear it all the way from their house.

_Why am I doing this again?_ She thought to herself. Yuffie looked up at the sky. The moon was barely visible at the moment, but the clouds drifted across the sky, causing the shadows to jump around.

She stepped into the yard and took it all in. Almost everything in the yard was dead, or dying. Even the weeds looked withered. She shuddered. Even though it was night, she wasn't used to the summer being so chilly. _I should have worn pants_.

Yuffie stepped forward and walked to the door. She stopped. She couldn't even reach forward to turn the knob. It felt as though her body was frozen in ice. She turned to find a pair of glowing red eyes staring at her from behind a wilting shrub.

She felt her heart drop into her stomach.

It started to breath, its voice ragged and heavy, as though it was panting.

_Oh god… I'm about to be killed by a werewolf…_ She thought, still unable to move. How could this be possible?

It started to walk towards Yuffie, taking long strides on two feet.

_Yep. I'm about to be killed by a werewolf…_

It stood right next to her, so close that Yuffie could feel its foul breath on her face. She stared at its eyes, completely mesmerized by the colour. As terrified as she was, she couldn't help but stare at them. They were the colour of a sunset.

Yuffie felt her hands move on their own accord. They reached up and held its face. It felt like a dog's face, the fur was short and crusted with something. Yuffie didn't know what it was. She stroked its face, as if she were in a deep trance.

"I'm not scared of you…" she said, her voice barely a whisper.

"You should be…" Its voice was gruff and gurgled, like a dog speaking.

Yuffie felt a pair of sharp claws dig into her forearms, she let out a small whimper at the pain. She couldn't see it, but she knew she was bleeding. Snapping back into reality, Yuffie ripped herself away from the thing. In the process she ended up deepening the wounds on her arms.

"Run…" it whispered.

Yuffie did just that. She ran as fast she could out of there, not paying attention to her bleeding arms, or the fact that she was being as loud as a warking chocobo.

She stopped at Tifa's house. Looking down at her forearms, she gasped. They were covered in blood. She would have to clean the wound without waking anyone, and wear arm warmers to hide them.

There had been something odd about the way its claws felt, they almost felt like metal.

Yuffie brushed it off. She had been curious, went to go and see and found out that Tifa was right. Only the mansion wasn't being haunted by an emo ghost, it was being haunted by a werewolf.

Slipping silently into the house, Yuffie tiptoed to the bathroom to start cleaning her arms.

A/N: Yeah buddy! Chapter 1! This'll probably only be a few chapters long, pretty short for me. Most likely less than 10 chapters. Anyways, hope you liked this chapter so far. Soooooooo R&R Tell me why you liked it, or why you didn't. I don't care. Critiques are always helpful, but flames aren't. So, yeah…. That's about it….


End file.
